Screw You, Domain Renewal Group

113 | Posted In Opinion by David

Anybody who is in this business owns one or more domain names. In many cases our WHOIS records for our domains contain our contact info, including address. This allows companies like the Domain Renewal Group to fetch my information (or your’s) and send you a “renewal notice” for your domain.

renewal

The above is a scanned image I recently got for one of my domains. I have gotten MANY such notices from this company. Here is my problem with this:

  1. They purposely make it look like a bill. This is no doubt designed to get people to accidentally change their domain name to these guys from its current registrar. A lot of people (rather naively) pay bills quickly without truly looking it over. And I bet these guys have gotten a lot of new “customers” because the person thought it was a bill.
  2. Even seeing through the above, their pricing is ridiculously high. I can renew my domain far cheaper at GoDaddy. When you visit the company’s website, you see that $30/year will get you basic hosting, too. This is not clear on this promotion.

I find this kind of promotion deceiving. It is designed to hopefully fool people into changing their domain to these guys. As a guy who is trying to help others get into this business, people who may not be totally up to speed on how these things work, I hate to see companies like this seemingly trying to take advantage of them.

BTW, according to this blog post, this company also goes by the name of Domain Registry of America and Liberty Names of America. That’s probably correct because I’ve gotten mail pieces from these names as well.

Use a reputable domain registrar guys. I personally recommend GoDaddy.

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  • BG, Ireland

    Thanks for this heads up… I am not nieve but nearly paid this one… I have lots of tech skills but domain management issues are not among them…. Brian, Ireland

  • donnaMorris

    I am assuming it is legal its seems to have been going for a while, we got a letter too. What they are doing is deceptive, it is easy to assume that its a bill not a form of solicitation.
    here’s what I suggest we all do… write an email to our domain provider and make them aware this is happening, domainrenewalgroup are posting these letters out over 4 months before the renewals are due, if we all got an email just before they sent this letter it would nip this in the bud. So please make your domain provider aware.

  • http://www.mindofz.com Zoe

    Yeah I got a letter from these a-holes too. The best thing to do is to send the letter back and in the credit card section, write “Domain Renewal Ain’t Getting My Money LOL” and in the total amount section, write “Jack Sh*t for You Scammers”

  • Chartlotte

    Thanks for sharing this info. I recently got a letter from them as well and decided to check them out before parting with my cash. I’m very glad I stumbled upon this and shan’t be giving these scammers the satisfaction. I’m shocked to see how global they’ve become (I’m from the UK like several of the other commenters).

  • Philipp

    Just binned their “invoice”. Thanx to the internet it is easier to identify scam :)

  • Kevin

    If you do get caught and cannot cancel your payment”Refunds for uncompleted transfer and renewals are refundable less a 10% fee.”
    “If payment is made by check, a refund will be issued by check. A refund by check may take up to 6-8 weeks to process as DROA must first confirm that the check has cleared, and has not returned as NSF or Stop Payment. If payment is made by credit card, a refund will be issued to that same credit card only. A refund to a credit card may take up to 10 days to process as DROA must first confirm that the charge to your credit card has cleared, and a “Charge Back” has not been initiated. ”

    I would like to know if they do pay and receive mail that comes without stamps?

  • Otuatail

    Yes but my details were never made public
    Desmond York UK)

  • Chrisvizz

    Hi, I got a letter too but my contact details are protected by
    WhoisGuard. How can they still get my contact info?

  • http://lollipoplocal.co.uk Jo Shaer

    There is another one called Domain Services too.  I have just saved two of my clients the best part of £50 per domain because they actually asked me about these invoices before paying them and will now have to email the rest to ensure that they don’t get sucked in.  One that I got from the company you mention is actually for a listing that I made private a few weeks ago so Im not sure how they got my info – unless the prepare their mailings a month or so in advance.

  • June

    I agree with Dave.  This is really a scam to get more money!  I was on the verge of paying and realised what it was about so have saved myself a bit of money.  This is not the first time I have come across this type of scam and it has made me careful about bills I receive.

    Junedf

  • Jamesalanc

    Hey have just recieved a letter like the above. Thought this was a con so checked it out.  Thanks to the information you have provided I now know I was right.  Keep up the good work.

  • Ed

    This is scam; deceptive and has conned a lot of people out of cash! ICANN needs to step up and do something about these guys! This needs to be better policed

  • http://profiles.google.com/bruno.martins.silva Bruno Silva

    Hi, just received a letter from them. I will share this post with everyone I know to make them aware of this scam.
    Thanks!

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